Colour in early movies

It is not known when the first full colour movie was created or which movie it was but it's known it was first introduced when hand cranked cine cameras were used.

Many methods were used since the introduction of three strip full colour in 1934 however colour in movies has been found to go back even as far as 1899, as seen to the left. From the image it is known that the camera used did not expose all the colours simultaneously as the moving people have artifacts whereas the ladders do not. This is why the early technicolor systems were so successful as the lenses manage to expose simultaneously.

There were a variety of methods such as:

• Hand Coloured films - This involved painting each individual frame, tinting film stock, toning black and white emulsion etc.
• Natural Colour films - Additive Colour - This method meant that the film did have its original colour whilst being filmed however being additive the colours were on a separate film and combined/overlapped with the original.
• Natural Colour Films - Subtractive Colour - This method has complimentary colours dyed into the emulsion, this way emits more light than additive.

As well as many other methods and types of film combinations used however technicolour and kinemacolour processes became the most popular.